


Caught Off Guard

by liziscribbles



Series: Flaws [2]
Category: Code Vein (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Canon-Compliant, F/M, Gen, Mentions of Blood Slavery, Mild Tsundere, Swearing, The Frey Twins Are A Mess, mom friend Coco, semi-character study, takes place after the Poison Butterfly fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 21:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liziscribbles/pseuds/liziscribbles
Summary: I don't know my own worth, but I know my soul,I’ll wait my turn, I want to learn, I’m ready.Aria Frey isn't used to having friends.  One side effect of having friends is talking about yourself.  She learns what it feels like.





	Caught Off Guard

**Author's Note:**

> Reference images:  
[Aria](https://twitter.com/lizibabbles/status/1184532735710375937)  
[Rin](https://twitter.com/BlueCrownFics/status/1184647911767977989)

"Hey, kiddo..."

As Aria leaned her head against the bar and drifted off, she was vaguely aware of a familiar voice calling to her. Her body was on the precipice of much-needed sleep, but all the background noise around her was making it difficult. In response to the voice, she simply grunted and waved her arm, telling the familiar voice wordlessly to buzz off.

In response, the voice laughed. "Good to know you're still living but that's not what I was gonna say."

With a huff, Aria slowly lifted her head and turned lazily to face the person who woke her. She was able to manage a tiny smile because it was Coco, but that was all she could muster before leaning forward on her stool and resting her head sideways against the bar.

"C'mon, Aria."

Aria opened one purple eye, regarding Coco in mild annoyance. All she wanted was a little nap. It was obvious that Coco wasn't going to leave her alone, though, so instead, she opened her other eye and sat up slowly. A glance around the room showed that everyone else was busy. Rin was talking quietly to Louis and Davis about their most recent excursion to the depths. Yakumo was getting some upgrades added to his sword with Murasame. Io was fast asleep.

The only one not really busy was that girl. The human girl. The one they saved at the Butterfly Nest. Aria watched her for a few lingering seconds. She looked so uncomfortable. It made perfect sense. After everything she'd been through, being the only human in a literal den of revenants had to be terrifying.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Aria turned to Coco. "What's up, Buttercup?" she asked her friend.

"Just noticing."

Aria quirked her head, before lifting her arms over her head and stretching her muscles out. "And you had to notice by waking me up?"

With a chuckle, Coco slid onto the stool next to Aria and nodded. "I mean, I guess I _could've_ just noticed while you slept, but that seems creepy," she mused.

Managing a laugh, Aria arched her back, shaking her ponytail behind her shoulder. "So, you said you were noticing?" she asked, tucking some loose hair behind her ear.

Coco nodded. "You've been sorta uncomfortable for a little while," she mused.

At first, all Aria could do was chuckle softly. "Well, I mean, in the past like... week or so, my whole life has been thrown on its head," she pointed out. "I go from waking up with Rin and Io god only knows where, with no memories of how we got there... or who Io even _is_, for that matter, to being forced to be a blood bead scavenger for some provisional government group, to being here. My brain's barely had a chance to catch up. Makes sense that I'd be a little confused, doesn't it?"

Tilting her head in a subtle sign of concession, Coco chuckled, too. "Sure, I guess. Seems a little worse now, though. Now that, you know..." She subtly nodded her head toward the human girl, who looked pretty uncomfortable herself.

Aria pursed her lips, her fangs catching on the underside for a brief second. She cast a quick glance at the poor woman. No, she couldn't say that having the smell of fresh blood in what was supposed to be their safe haven was helping her feel more at ease. Thirst clawed at the back of her throat, and as long as that woman was there, no amount of blood beads would be able to fully satiate that thirst. She wondered if the rest of them felt the same way. If they did, they were all doing a remarkable job of covering it up, which was doing nothing but make Aria feel worse.

Her discomfort came from more than that, though. She looked at that woman, and... she remembered.

She remembered her life before she became a revenant, locked away as some greedy revenant's meal. She remembered the daily feedings, when those jerk revenants would burst into the room she shared with Rin and drink from both of them until they'd had their full. She remembered... she remembered _everything_, and boy did she wish she didn't.

"Hey, I remember you telling me you hadn't, um... lost much memory. Right?" Aria asked Coco, before she could stop herself.

Coco nodded. "I remember pretty much everything, yeah. Probably because the only time I died is when I became a revenant," she explained.

Aria hummed thoughtfully, shrugging and nodding as well. "Yeah, I guess. I've only died twice, so... guess it makes sense that I'd remember a lot, too. Pretty much... the only thing I don't remember is what happened before I woke up with Rin and Io, so..." she trailed off, scratching the back of her head and huffing in annoyance.

"Why do you ask?" Coco prodded.

Immediately, Aria found herself wishing she hadn't opened up. Cracking a door open always led to people sticking their foot in and trying to push it open even further. Aria liked Coco, but she wasn't sure she wanted Coco to know where she and Rin came from. Anyone who found out always pitied them. Aria _hated_ pity. She pushed some stray bangs behind her ear again and puffed a breath out through loose lips.

"Ever wish you didn't remember?"

Coco was quiet at first, and she grabbed hold of her hat, pushing her hand through her hair and straightening it out. "All the damn time," she mused. "Why, is there something you want to forget?"

Instead of meeting Coco's gaze—Aria really didn't want to see the curiosity on Coco's face right now—she cast her eyes around the room to make sure no one else was looking. Yakumo was sitting on the couch, listening to the jukebox and reading one of Louis' books. Her eyes lingered on him a little longer than they probably should have. Io still snoozed away on the day bed. Murasame was talking with Davis now, and it seemed that Rin and Louis had moved on. Now, they were at Louis' desk, where they chatted quietly together. It managed to pull a genuine smile from Aria. She was glad to see her brother talking so easily to someone else. Rin had always been sort of shy and nervous, and for most of their lives, they'd been one another's only friends. It seemed like Louis was managing to pull Rin out of his shell, and as happy as Aria was for him, she was also a little bit jealous.

She shook it off, before turning her gaze back to Coco. "Everyone has that something, don't they?"

Coco nodded. "Guess so, yeah," she mused, putting her hat back on her head. "I'm not gonna pry, don't worry. If you _do_ want to share, though, I'm here to listen."

Aria's eyes fell on the human woman again. She was resting at the table, overlooking the ruined city. Aria breathed in quickly, exhaling slowly and resting her chin on her fist. Her elbow rested on the bar, and she cast a sidelong look in Coco's direction. "I was like her. Rin and I both. When we were human." She didn't specify. She didn't think she needed to.

Sure enough, Coco caught on. She turned her eyes to the human woman, stared for a couple of seconds, then turned to look back at Aria. "You were? So you lived—"

"Some shitheel revenant kept us in this weird... zoo thing, in his basement. We lived there, with a couple other humans whose names we never really bothered to learn," Aria mused. "There was no point. We knew, at that point, that we were all pretty much temporary."

Coco was stunned. "Is that how you..." she trailed off.

"Died? No. Well... not me, anyway. Rin did. The guy came home with a buddy of his, close to frenzy. His buddy rushed down to the basement and grabbed the closest human to him, who just so happened to be Rin." Aria's lip curled up into a sneer, as she remembered the revenant's red eyes, and the way he'd thrown Aria across the room over and over, no matter how many times she'd tried to get him to stop drinking from Rin. "He, uh... wouldn't stop. No matter what I tried. I get what frenzy feels like now, but that doesn't mean... Rin still shouldn't have..." Anger flooded her like she was drowning in quicksand, and she clenched her fists tightly.

"'Course he shouldn't have," Coco agreed.

Aria snorted derisively. "I was... man, 'pissed off' doesn't feel like it's enough to describe how I felt. I couldn't even think straight. All I could think was that... those assholes killed my brother, you know? Rin was all I had, so... I don't think I would've been able to stop myself if I tried," she mused, fully aware she hadn't even told Coco what happened next yet.

Coco's quirked eyebrow was no surprise to Aria. "From what?"

With a bitter chuckle, Aria shrugged. "Attacking them. I think, in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't gonna go well. I didn't care, though. I wanted to hurt them," she murmured. "Didn't manage much, though. I mean, I couldn't really fight."

"It only makes sense that you'd want revenge, after what they did to your brother."

Much to Aria's surprise, the voice who responded didn't belong to Coco. Yakumo spoke up from behind her, and Aria's head moved toward the sound so quickly that she probably should have worried about breaking her neck. She stared blankly at Yakumo, who had stopped behind them and was looking at her with his yellow-green eyes trained in a softer expression than Aria expected. Aria opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to come up with _something_ to say to cover her shock. When nothing came, she clamped her mouth shut and just nodded.

Coco chuckled. "Way to scare her out of her skin, Yakumo."

Yakumo laughed sheepishly, before reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry. I was passing by and I heard you talking, and I just... couldn't help it. I was curious."

"How much did you hear?" Aria asked snappily, before she could stop herself.

The embarrassed look on Yakumo's face made her feel guilty all over again. "Uh... all of it. I swear, I wasn't trying to or anything, I just—"

Aria grimaced, but ticked her shoulders in a shrug as she turned her head away from Yakumo. "It's not a secret or anything. I just... didn't expect to be telling _anyone_ today, let alone, y'know, two people," she muttered with a self-deprecating laugh.

"It's not like we're gonna judge you, kiddo," Coco pointed out gently.

Yakumo nodded his agreement as he walked around to the other side of the bar. "It's not your fault people are greedy," he pointed out. His expression was still soft as he regarded her, but he turned away and gathered three small glasses from a nearby shelf. He filled them each with brandy, and slid one to Coco and the other to Aria. The third, he kept for himself.

Aria looked down at the drink in surprise. "I didn't even know I wanted a drink until now," she mused.

"This seems like the kind of conversation you have over a drink or two," Yakumo replied, quickly downing his brandy and then refilling his glass.

Without too much thought, Aria lifted the glass and downed half of it in one swig. The pleasant, warm burn made her feel less tense, and even though she still didn't exactly _love_ telling this story, it was a little bit easier when it was to decent people. "Like I said, I couldn't fight," she continued, "so it wasn't long before they completely overpowered me. I don't, uh... I don't _think_ they meant to kill me. I think they wanted to keep me around, you know? Use me as a blood cow."

Coco arched an eyebrow. "Blood cow?"

Aria laughed against her volition. "That's what we called ourselves. Well, what I called us. Rin always got mad at me when I did, but it's pretty much what we were. Milked of our blood when some revenant got hungry. We were steak and milk all at once," she remarked bitterly as she downed the last of her drink.

"Don't call yourself that," Yakumo rumbled protectively from behind the counter, before tilting the brandy bottle in front of her, silently asking if she wanted another drink.

Lifting her glass in a quiet confirmation, Aria shrugged. "I mean, when you see a spade, you call it a spade. Better than calling myself a blood slave, isn't it?" she asked.

Coco frowned. "Still. Sucks hearing your friend talk about themselves like that," she pointed out.

Friend. The thought made Aria smile as she turned to look at Coco, then at Yakumo behind the counter. It was weird. Coco, she'd definitely trusted right away, mostly because Coco had welcomed her with open arms and never really expressed any kind of doubt toward her intentions. Yakumo, though? His change was quick. He went from making her feel like she and Rin would never belong with the group, to pouring her drinks, listening to her life story, and telling her not to make disparaging jokes about herself. It wasn't expected, and the cynical part of Aria's mind wondered what he wanted from her. The tiniest sliver of her mind didn't mind it, though. He seemed... nice. Even if there was something weird in his eyes when he looked at her.

"Sorry," Aria murmured.

Coco was about to ask a question, Aria was reasonably sure, but before she got a chance, Murasame poked her in the shoulder.

"Coco, do you have any of that Queen Steel? Rin was asking me about a couple upg—" Murasame stopped suddenly and cast her eyes across the group. "Whoa, did I walk into Sad Hour or something? You all look super grumpy!"

Aria was at a complete loss, and Coco seemed like she was too. It wasn't that Aria didn't trust Murasame. She did. It was just hard enough telling the story _once_, and for _two_ people. Telling it over again was _not_ high on Aria's to-do list.

While they tried to find a way to answer, Yakumo met Murasame's curiosity with an easy smile. "Nah, it's nothing like that, Murasame. We were just talking about how Aria saved me from dispersing when we fought the Poison Butterfly back in the city. Coco was lecturing me, and then Aria jumped in, and I'm pretty sure I'm in big trouble with both of them right now," he mused.

Violet eyes turned back toward Yakumo, blinking in stunned silence. Once again, he'd put himself in the line of fire to keep her from embarrassing herself. How did he do that? _Why_ did he do that? It wasn't like she'd been particularly _nice_ to him! She turned and looked down at her full glass, deciding that the amber liquid inside was easier to look at than the kind expression on Yakumo's face. In spite of herself, she couldn't help the corner of her lips from curling up into a tiny smile.

"One of these days, he'll learn to stop being so reckless," Aria responded under her breath, feebly attempting to hide her sheepishness.

Yakumo responded with a warm laugh. "Look who's talking," he replied as he corked the brandy bottle and put it back on the shelf.

A grin spread across Coco's face. She cast Aria a sidelong, knowing glance as she quickly downed her drink and set the glass on the counter. "So, you were asking about Queen Steel? I think I just got a shipment in, actually. C'mon, I'll give it to you at a discount. I'm feeling a little charitable today."

As Coco and Murasame walked away, talking about metals and weapon upgrades or something like that, Aria realized that their departure left her alone with Yakumo. She peered up from behind a curtain of purple hair, catching his eye from the other side of the bar, and quickly looked away. Seriously, it was a little ridiculous, the way he turned her into a complete and total bumbling idiot. She finished the last of her drink and looked up at him again.

"You didn't have to do that," Aria told him quietly.

Yakumo shrugged. "It's no big deal. Telling a story like that is hard enough once, without having to get into it again right after," he offered.

She chuckled bitterly. "Especially to an unexpected second person," she teased.

With a laugh, Yakumo looked down at the bar. "I wasn't—"

Aria cut him off and smiled at him. "It's okay. I was just teasing. I don't mind." A fact which surprised even her.

The warm smile he gave her in response was even more surprising. It was sweet and kind and Aria felt her heart stutter in her chest. She turned her head away sharply, and pushed the glass across the counter.

"So, how did—"

Before he could finish his question, Aria quickly stood from the barstool. "I'm actually kinda tired," she murmured under her breath. "That's what I was trying to do, before Coco showed up. Take a nap. So, I'm gonna go to one of the bedrooms and, y'know, do that. Okay?"

Even without looking, Aria could hear the surprise and disappointment in Yakumo's voice. "Oh. Alright, uh..."

"Thanks, though. For the drink," Aria answered quietly.

Aria didn't give Yakumo a chance to answer, before she turned away and hurried past Coco and Murasame. She turned down the hallway and into the nearest bedroom, closing the door behind her. Only as she leaned back against the door, did she allow heat to rush to her cheeks. What the hell was _wrong_ with her? She didn't share sheepish smiles with cute guys after telling them sob stories from her past. Hell, she didn't even _tell_ cute guys sob stories about her past, no matter _how_ nice they were to her.

That, in and of itself, was another thing! Why was Yakumo so _nice_ to her? It wasn't like she'd been particularly nice to him. Did he want something from her? That was the only reason she could think about, for him to be so nice to her, so suddenly. She frowned. Maybe after some rest, she'd be able to process this better. She crawled into the bed, beneath the nice, fluffy, white blankets, and closed her eyes, waiting impatiently for sleep to take her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to [Nada](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueCrownFics/pseuds/BlueCrownFics) for being an awesome beta and an even better friend. _Plus_, for helping build all these character headcanons with me and building an amazing world with the Frey twins! We have so many plans for this, guys. You can't even begin to understand.
> 
> Be sure to read her new fic featuring Louis and Aria's twin brother Rin, [Exfiltration](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063296)!


End file.
